There are many ways to get motivated and find inspiration. But listening to the wisdom of the world’s most influential and accomplished women is guaranteed to give you a much-needed fix of motivation.
Whether at work or in your personal life, these motivational audiobooks replace quick fixes with actionable tools and strategies to help you change how you think. Here’s our list of audiobooks and podcasts from women who have inspired us to create positive change in our own lives or in the lives of others. Find your favourite new audiobook that keeps you pushing forward to achieve great things.
The First Step Is Confidence
Inviting change into your life starts with building confidence. Self-belief empowers you to take that first step in the right direction. When you have faith in your own abilities, skills and talents, you attract new opportunities. The more opportunities you welcome, the more action you take and the more self-trust you gain. So, how does one start? Allow Audible to help.
Below are audiobooks and podcasts from five women who have inspired us to create positive change. Whether at work or in your personal life, these motivational audiobooks replace quick-fixes with actionable tools and strategies to help you change the way you think.
Already familiar with our choices? You can find tons more audiobooks from inspirational women, including memoirs and biographies that give a wealth of advice and hard-won wisdom.
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned 30, she experienced something that resembled an early midlife crisis. She was an ambitious young woman with a great career, a home and a husband. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. Gilbert endured a divorce, depression and another failed relationship. Her next move was a bold one. To discover who she was and what she truly wanted, she quit her job, stepped out of her comfort zone and set off on a year-long solo journey—first to Italy, then to India and finally to Bali. Chronicling Gilbert’s travels and discoveries, Eat, Pray, Love shows that it’s possible to change your life in just a year, empowering you to make a bold move.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Another title from Elizabeth Gilbert is on our list of the best motivational audiobooks. Gilbert digs deep to share her wisdom and perspective about creativity in this New York Times bestseller. The American author and journalist offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She shows listeners how to tackle what they most love and face up to their fears. She brings listeners the tools, approaches, and habits to live their most creative lives. One of the best inspirational audiobooks, Big Magic, will inspire and encourage listeners to follow their passions and creative endeavours with wonder and joy.
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
Based on 12 years of research, professor and celebrated author Dr. Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness. The New York Times bestselling author explains that vulnerability is the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief and disappointment and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation and creativity. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead is not an audiobook about winning or losing—it’s an uplifting listen about courage. Listeners can apply Brown’s teachings and observations to their relationships, professional endeavours, creative processes or difficult family conversations.
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
Brené Brown appears on our list again with the 10th-anniversary edition of The Gifts of Imperfection, a great audiobook she describes as “an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution.” This motivational listen delivers ten guideposts to wholehearted living, which listeners can implement in their everyday lives. The guideposts not only help listeners with the tools to change their lives but also walk them through the sabotaging expectations and self-doubt that can get in the way. Dr. Brown brings her research to life with her personal stories in this powerful self-help audiobook, which will both inspire and resonate with listeners.
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
You Are a Badass is one of the best self-development listens that teaches you how to get better without getting busted. In this practical how-to guide, bestselling author and success coach Jen Sincero delivers 27 bite-sized chapters full of inspiring stories, actionable advice and easy exercises that can be applied to different situations. The unabridged version of Sincero’s self-narrated audiobook features an exclusive interview with the author. It includes plenty of humour and occasional adult language for good measure. Add this title to your library to stamp out self-sabotaging behaviours, create a life you love and take a new approach to your finances.
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
In Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes, the creator of Grey's Anatomy and Bridgerton, explains how saying yes for one year changed her life and how it can change yours too. After saying no to invitations, speaking engagements and media appearances, introverted Rhimes realized there was a side benefit to saying no: nothing new to fear. Then, her sister presented her with the ultimate challenge to try to say yes to unexpected invitations for one year. In this empowering listen, Rhimes uncovers the powerful impact saying yes had on every aspect of her life and how the affirmation of saying yes can open up exciting new paths and reveal your hidden strengths.
Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
For more than a decade, thousands of people have sought advice from Dear Sugar, the pseudonym of bestselling author Cheryl Strayed. Initially, people could ask for guidance through her online column and, later, through her hit Dear Sugars podcast. Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of the best of Dear Sugar, bringing Strayed’s wisdom to listeners. This 10th-anniversary edition features six new columns and a preface from Strayed herself. This fascinating listen is a true testament to everything life throws our way, no matter how big or small a problem or conflict may be. Strayed delivers an audio experience full of humour, insight and compassion, which will particularly resonate with women.
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Author and speaker Gretchen Rubin is one the most influential observers of happiness. In The Happiness Project, she shares the story of her journey to discovering true happiness. Rubin reports on her year-long experiment, drawing on science, philosophy and real-world examples. On a rainy afternoon, while riding a city bus, Rubin had an epiphany: “The days are long, but the years are short. Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that matter”. And from that moment on, she dedicated a year of her life to her happiness project. In this motivational account, Rubin digs into what it means to be happy and how you can create happiness in your own life.
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Sheryl Sandberg ranked eighth on Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list. The entrepreneur and business icon embodies female empowerment. In Lean In, she urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, find work they love, and remain passionately engaged with it throughout their lives. This provocative and inspiring audiobook about women and power grew out of an electrifying TED talk Sandberg gave in 2010. Sandberg is qualified to lead the way if you want to excel in your career or get some tried and tested motivational lessons.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo is a Japanese organizing consultant and star of the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, she provides listeners with the tools to declutter their homes and maintain a clean and calm environment. Kondo believes if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Her approach to getting rid of whatever does not “spark joy” is tried and tested by her many clients. So why not get started this year by adding this life-changing listen to your audio library and transform your living space into a tidy and tranquil sanctuary? A tidy home can significantly impact your mental health, after all.
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates is a renowned philanthropist, businesswoman and advocate for women and girls worldwide. In The Moment of Lift, Gates reinforces how empowering women and girls can change the world. In this moving and compelling listen, Melinda shares lessons from the inspiring people she met during her travels and her work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As she writes in the introduction, “That is why I had to write this book—to share the stories of people who have given focus and urgency to my life. I want all of us to see ways we can lift women up where we live”. A testament to the power of women, this audiobook will encourage you to find your power and share it with others.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
In her 1969 autobiographical title, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recounts stories from her childhood. When Maya was three, she and her brother were sent by their mother to live with their grandmother in a small Southern town, where they were met with prejudice from the locals. At age eight, Maya was sexually assaulted by a man in St. Louis. She grew up feeling afraid and worthless, often turning to books for solace. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love for herself and the kindness of others and embraces her love for great authors. All of the events uncovered in this modern American classic help listeners to understand Maya’s story and how she became the influential author, poet, Black American activist, and woman she was.
Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
Do you ever feel like you can’t overcome your obstacles? Marie Forleo wants you to realize that even when things get complicated, there’s nothing in life that can’t be figured out. Everything Is Figureoutable is a guide to becoming a creative force in your own life.
Listeners learn how to form new habits to maximize potential, beat imposter syndrome and overcome hardships. Forleo communicates that it takes creativity to tackle challenges and achieve goals. With practical steps for retraining your brain, this audiobook will transform you into a relentless optimist, with a mindset of self-determination.
The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Body image and self-esteem are closely intertwined. Thanks to the media, women are constantly barraged with unrealistic expectations and narrow definitions of beauty. Sonya Renee Taylor has set out to change that story with a message of radical self-love. According to Taylor, self-love begins with recognizing and waking up to the culture of body shaming.
A world-renowned activist and poet, Taylor asks you to reflect on your earliest memories of body shaming and provides her own hard-earned advice for overcoming those deep-seated insecurities. The Body Is Not an Apology is a starting point for body positivity and reconnecting to yourself.
Make Life Work by Alice Fraser and Ash Ranpura
Alice Fraser is an Australian comedian and podcaster who became all too familiar with overworking, thanks to her past career in law. She knows personally the physical and mental costs of work-life imbalance and when unchecked, how long work days can leave you drained with little energy for self or other pursuits. Fortunately, she’s teamed up with neuroscientist Ash Ranpura to find out exactly what overwork is doing to us – and how to fix it – in this six-episode Audible Original.
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Brittney Cooper’s subtitle to Eloquent Rage says it all: How a Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. Cooper celebrates and explores a tradition of Black women channelling their anger into power. She looks at icons like Serena Williams, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama to find out how their eloquent rage propelled them toward greatness and reminded them that they never had to settle.
Eloquent Rage has been called a “Black Feminist Manifesto” that focuses on the force of female friendships and radical Blackness; a call for self-empowerment that uses anger to make changes in the world.
Start Here with Mel Robbins
Mel Robbins is a no-nonsense voice who has spent 10 years motivating others to rise up to the challenges in their lives. In Start Here, Robbins taps into her breadth of wisdom to cover 13 separate topics in 30 minutes or less, such as anxiety, careers, family, money, relationships, emotional eating and more. Her goal is to get you to tackle the hardest part of self-development: the first step. Robbins strives to wake you up, uncover your strength and leave you ready to take on whatever challenges you face.
Trust Your Own Abilities
While each of these audiobooks and podcasts has a different approach, they share a common message: no matter what your goals are, success starts with you! Whatever hurdles stand between you and change, you can tackle them if you invest the time and effort to forge your path forward.
If you’re looking for more motivational content, check out these audiobooks that celebrate women’s voices, from memoirs to historical biographies to fiction. These will inspire you to follow in the footsteps of women who have found their voices and challenged conventions with confidence.
Who do you turn to for a good pep talk? Tell us about your role models and favourite women in business on Facebook. Share their wisdom with everyone!
